Links are one of the many factors or indicators Google uses to rank websites and web pages. To put that into perspective, link building is an on-going and tedious process all internet marketers do in order to help their websites rank in the top ten results of the search engine pages. Building links can be done automatically with the help of automated software or can be done manually to control its quality. However, using either of the methods, sometimes there are still links that Google flags as spam. These can reduce the site’s ranking in the future.
In the last couple of years, Google has taken a harder stance on spammy links through the Penguin updates. These changes to the algorithm catch sites that are spamming Googles search results, in particular those doing so by buying links or obtaining them through link networks designed primarily to boost Google rankings.
Every webmaster should be vigilant to monitor every backlink their website receives to avoid penalties and a bad reputation from Google. A traditional way to remove spammy links is to contact the site owner and simply ask to take down the links going to your site. Despite your effort to reach the webmaster they may not be able to address the concern, You can use a tool from Google to disavow these unwanted links.
This Google Disavow tool comes in very handy if you don’t have the time to contact every webmaster that has unnaturally linked back to your website. However, Matt Cutts has reiterated that they don’t want people to go overboard using this tool unless there is a real need for doing so. If you are certain that you want to remove the link, this is the only time you should use this tool. The method to re-avow the ignored links could take so much time that according to the head of the Google webspam team it is rarely worth the effort.
To avoid all the troubles of having a negative impact on your link building, every link builder should carefully strategize and plan their campaigns considering the tools, content they’re going to use and the website’s reputation or site ranking they’ll create a back link to. This will save a lot of time as the effort you will reap in the end is beneficial for your website ranking.